rhomb

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English

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Etymology

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Partly borrowed from Middle French rhombe and partly from its etymon Latin rhombus,[1] from Ancient Greek ῥόμβος (rhómbos). Doublet of rhombus and rhumb.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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rhomb (plural rhombs)

  1. A rhombus.
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Humours and Dispositions of the Laputians Described. []”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. [] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: [] Benj[amin] Motte, [], →OCLC, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan), page 26:
      Their Ideas are perpetually converſant in Lines and Figures. If they would, for example, praiſe the Beauty of a Woman, or any other Animal, they deſcribe it by Rhombs, Circles, Parallelograms, Ellipſes, and other Geometrical Terms, or by Words of Art drawn from Muſick, needleſs here to repeat.
    • 1851, John Ruskin, “The Material of Ornament”, in The Stones of Venice, volume I (The Foundations), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., [], →OCLC, § XXIII, page 219:
      The four-sided pyramid, perhaps the most frequent of all natural crystals, is called in architecture a dogtooth; its use is quite limitless, and always beautiful: the cube and rhomb are almost equally frequent in chequers and dentils;
    • 1962 [1942], Jorge Luis Borges, translated by Anthony Kerrigan, “Death and the Compass”, in Anthony Kerrigan, editor, Ficciones, Grove Press, translation of original in Spanish, Part Two: Artifices, page 112:
      A circumference on a blackboard, a rectangular triangle, a rhomb, are forms which we can fully intuit;
  2. A rhombohedron.

Derived terms

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References

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  1. ^ rhomb, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
  2. ^ Rhomb” in John Walker, A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary [] , London: Sold by G. G. J. and J. Robinſon, Paternoſter Row; and T. Cadell, in the Strand, 1791, →OCLC, page 436.